SSPDF: Why Bilpham was quiet on big day
It seemed like the stage was all set for the celebration of the 39th Anniversary of SPLA Day in Juba on Monday.
Having painted the various states red with its grass-root mobilisation in what appears to be a preparation for the 2023 poll, it looked likely the ruling SPLM Party was up to something big to remember the liberators. But this expectation was never met. There was no celebration. No songs. No dances. It was a typical lazy day like any other normal holiday.
Speaking to The City Review in an exclusive interview, South Sudan People’s Defence Force spokesperson, Gen. Lul Ruai Koang confirmed that there was no official celebration of the 39th anniversary of the SPLA Day because they had not received any direction.
Nothing happened
“We did not receive any directives from the minister of defence as well as the government on whether we were going to celebrate or not,” he said.
However, he said SPLA Day is the day that citizens should reflect on the SPLA-led war of liberation that lasted for 21 years and resulted in independence.
“We lost many people, combatants, civilians who died either directly from the war, disasters and generations were also lost to illiteracy among other war-related issues. So, it’s a day on which we reflect on how it began and how it ended in a successful referendum to the door for the independence of our country. It is a great day,” Gen Lul said said
In the past, the day which was last celebrated in 2014 at Dr John Garang Mausoleum, was with a lot of activities including the display of the SPLA arsenal and the spectacle parade by the organised forces.
“In the earlier 2000s, there was established the civil authority of new Sudan which had civilian’s structures and now the movement was separated.” Gen Lul said.
“We had a civil administration that was being run by the SPLM appointed governors and the roles of the government were separated where we had the judiciary, the civil authority, and the military.”
On May 16th SPLA Day
South Sudan celebrates SPLA Day on May 16 each year to remember a group of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) mutineers who opened fire on a barracks in Bor, forming the basis of the SPLA. Colonel John Garang de Mabior was ordered to put down the uprising but ended up leading the SPLA.
The SPLA rebelled against the Sudanese government’s imposition of sharia law. Its long-running war against Islamic control lasted more than two decades, with Dr John Garang as its commander. Dr Garang died in a helicopter crash in 2005, clearing the way for the current president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir who took over as the Commander in Chief of the SPLA.
